Canva Education is now available through Scotland’s Glow platform as an opt-in service for local authorities.
Canva has been added to Glow, Scotland’s national digital learning platform, but access will depend on decisions made by individual local authorities rather than a single nationwide rollout.
Teachers and students with Glow accounts can request Canva Education through their council. The service includes premium design tools at no cost, while local authorities will decide when it is introduced and whether participating schools can use Canva’s artificial intelligence features.
Glow is provided by the Scottish Government and managed by Education Scotland. The agreement is open to all 32 Scottish local authorities, with Glasgow City Council among the first to opt in.
The next stage will be council-by-council adoption, supported by Canva training sessions, competitions, and curriculum-aligned resources.
Schools in participating council areas will be able to use Canva Education for presentations, visual content, classroom resources, and collaborative work from internet-enabled devices.
Education Scotland has retained local control over implementation, including decisions about Canva’s AI functions. That distinction limits the scope of Canva’s claim that every teacher and student in Scotland will receive the same tools, because councils must first approve and introduce the service.
Donna McMaster, Chief Executive at Education Scotland, says local authorities will determine the detail of the rollout: “Local authorities will have the flexibility to determine how and when the service is introduced, including decisions around the use of AI features.”
McMaster links that approach to the Scottish Guidelines and Guardrails for the use of AI in Schools, adding: “This aligns with the Scottish Government’s broader commitment to the safe and responsible use of digital technology in education, supported by the recently published Scottish Guidelines and Guardrails for the use of AI in Schools.”
The arrangements allow councils to introduce Canva’s standard design functions without necessarily approving every AI capability at the same time.
The existing figures give Canva an established base in Scottish education, with more than 109,000 Glow users already using the platform and 1.38 million designs created to date.
Canva says removing the cost of its premium education service will reduce differences in access between schools. However, availability will still vary until more councils confirm that they are joining the agreement.
Jake Steadman, UK Country Manager at Canva, says: “For the first time, every teacher and student in Scotland will have access to the same powerful creative and AI tools, regardless of where they go to school.”
In practice, that access will be available through participating authorities, with councils retaining control over AI use. Education Scotland has not announced a deadline for all 32 local authorities to make their decisions.
The Glow agreement forms part of Canva’s Step Two education program, through which Canva says it has made Canva Education available to 50 million users across the UK and Europe.
Canva also provides the education version of its platform across every school in Poland, Türkiye, and Slovenia. In Scotland, Glow will act as the access route for councils that choose to participate.
Glasgow City Council is among the first authorities to opt in. Further local authority decisions will determine how widely Canva Education is available across Scotland and whether access to its AI features differs between council areas.
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